posted January 17, 201301:02 PM
My '59 Grizzly is still shooting with the skinny string on it since 2008. Bow stays strung most of the time and no problems, the wood arrows weigh about 525 gns. I still won't try anything but B50 on my Kodiaks or other collector bows. BTW I too tested the strength of several string materials and found they were consistently about half of manufacturer's specs. I'm not recommending modern strings on older bows, just decided to try it for myself.
Posts: 9987 | From: Los Gatos, California | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted March 26, 201512:57 PM
Putting this back on top to see if anyone has any updates. As with any practice, the longer the history the better conclusions you can make about it.

I am interested as I pulled out my 73 Kodiak Hunter and was shooting and my serving broke. Wanting to keep shooting, I grabbed my backup string for my current go to bow (an 10 strand endless loop TS+ padded to 16 strands in the loops) and put it on. I was shocked at how much this changed how the bow shoots compared to the 12 strand Dacron I took off. Besides seaming much faster, it was quieter with less shock and vibration - just a better feel throughout the shot. Also, the annoying buzz in the old spring arm quiver was gone. I had to use a 50 grain lighter point to get the bow/arrow back in tune.

--------------------"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." Neil deGrasse Tyson

posted April 07, 201512:27 PM
Try a 12-14 strand B55 endless loop string as a higher performance yet safe alternative on your older collectors. My experiments with this showed it closer in performance to a flemish twist D97 than a B50 flemish. I can usually shoot the same arrows and tip weight with the B55 endless loop as the fast flight string where the B50 flemish always meant retuning my arrow setup. I use 12 strand for 60lb and 14 strand B55 for 70lbs+.

posted April 11, 201507:44 AM
I have found the endless loops are higher performance than the flemish twists as well.

I have also seen scarce few posts (on TG or other sites) in the past 2 years since this thread was last posted on in 2013 about old bows blowing up with padded FF material. I actually can't remember even seeing one.

While I don't do it (use FF on my old bows) I know many guys who do and I am likely going to try it soon. I would NOT do it on an old Bear with the micarta tips on it still, but that's back in the 1950's...so you're KH is fine.

Endless loop does seem to give a noticeable improvement in speed on my old Bears over the twist. It's a bit tougher to quiet down for me though.

--------------------TGMM Family of the Bow

"God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.” - Billy GrahamPosts: 2754 | From: Ohio | Registered: Dec 2009
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posted April 11, 201509:48 AM
I will shoot all of my 60's Bears with low stretch strings...if that sort of material had been available in the 60's Bear would have been using it

DDave

--------------------I set out a while ago to reduce my herd of 40 bows...right now I am down to about 47 by my count...someone help me pleasePosts: 3469 | From: Mirror, Alberta, Canada | Registered: May 2009
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posted April 11, 201509:52 AM
We have satisfied ourselves that virtually all the stretch in a B50 string occurs in the loops...my stringmaker is a Master at braiding the loops which takes care of that issue rather nicely...I suspect that a well made endless loop string does exactly the same thing...I will use a B50 string on a particular bow so that I can shoot a more reasonable spine...with draw weight over 60 pounds at 30 inches I find I need to be shooting 250 spine arrows with BCY-X which greatly limits my choices

DDave

--------------------I set out a while ago to reduce my herd of 40 bows...right now I am down to about 47 by my count...someone help me pleasePosts: 3469 | From: Mirror, Alberta, Canada | Registered: May 2009
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posted April 11, 201510:36 AM
With the '59 Kodiak being the last with the paper micarta tips, most folks say 1960 and later bows are better suited to low stretch.

But what about the '59 Kodiak Special? Are they also made with the paper micarta?

About a year ago, I put a Dynaflight 97 flemish string on a '59 KS of about 45# and been shooting it from time to time. I noticed improvement in all aspects of shooting the bow and see no negatives to report.